Jobaaj Stories
Story of the week - Swiggy raises $1.25Bn!
Yes, you heard it right. Quickly overshadowing the Zomato IPO hype, the close rival Siwggy raises $1.25Bn from SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and Prosus at a valuation close to $5.5bn.
Looking at the potential to ride on the growing online food delivery market, Softbank makes its first Indian investment in the sector. Swiggy plans to use the money to capitalize on its new booming non-food delivery business. Based on recent news from Swiggy, its entry into grocery and pick-drop services has proved to be a turning point post-covid.
Swiggy's vision to expand and build on avenues outside core food delivery sets it apart from its closest rival - Zomato.
“The participation of some of the most visionary global investors is a huge vote of confidence in Swiggy's mission and ability to build an enduring and iconic company out of India. The scope of food delivery in India is massive and over the next few years, we will continue to invest aggressively into growing this category,” said Sriharsha Majety, chief executive of Swiggy, in a statement.
With all the fuzz, It wouldn't be a surprise to see Swiggy filing for an IPO next year.
On a side note, Zomato made a strong debut with the first-day trade closed at 66% above the list price.
Story of the week - The future of commercial space flights
Two self-funded space flights within weeks' time aren't something you hear every other day. This week, following Virgin's successful mark last week, Amazon's Bezos along with three other passengers flew to space.
But the bigger question is - Could this be commercialized into a successful venture?
Based on recent news, both the players are planning to rapidly expand into commercial business allowing non-trained individuals to travel space. Though it looks nothing less than a dream come true, currently there is a relatively very small market for this.
But, if you have asked - “Can I travel across the globe within hours?” 20 years back, the answer would be far extreme from the current reality.
Hoping to book my UberMoon soon!
Global Market Updates
Global Equity Market
Dow and S&P experienced the best week with Dow reaching the first-ever mark of 35,000. The markets are continuing the bull run fueled by low-interest rates. But with inflation concerns and increasing talk of tapering the loose monetary policy, the current valuation could change drastically in coming years.
Global Debt Markets
Fueled by loose central bank policy, global debt markets are at an all-time low yield and no big company is leaving the chance to get a hold of this cheap capital. A young example is how oracle deprioritized its credit rating to pile $15Bn.
Though this has created a lot of opportunity in the debt market, the cheap capital has accelerated the M&A rate far above the pre-pandemic levels.
Companies in Focus
- BYJU'S buys Epic, a California-based kids' digital reading platform for $500Mn.
- Google announced to open a bit on its search results by allowing people to see the reason why they are seeing a particular set of search results
- Indicating the digital boom, Snapchat and Twitter reported record revenue growth
Thanks for Reading!
Shubham Agarwal (CFA L2 Candidate | Incoming MBA candidate at University of Cambridge, UK)
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